London 2016 European ambassadors Jazz Carlin and James Guy - courtesy London 2016

Britain has opted not to select national senior champion to represent it at a home European Championships in May next month: the squad for the four-swimmers-per-race event from May 16-22 will be a mixture of the Olympic team for Rio 2016 and the Target Tokyo 2020 squad of developing talent. The Britain team for London 2016 team will feature World champions Adam Peaty, James Guy, and Commonwealth champions Hannah Miley, Jazz Carlin and Siobhan-Marie O’Connor.

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Comments

So can athletes still qualify for olympics at this meet, or is the team named last week the team, no matter what times are posted by swimmers who have not qualified?

Craig Lord
April 26, 2016

No, the team is set, gkeho. No additional selections for Rio.

gheko
April 26, 2016

If Liam goes 52.90 in the 100m back he wont qualify??

felix
April 26, 2016

No. He wont & he wont

Paul Smith
April 26, 2016

Reasonable reflections, Craig.

British Swimming is looking increasingly vindictive towards its out-of-favour national champions? Some in the swimming community would like to have proper representation in every discipline, at things like Europeans – with all the ‘characters’ involved.
If I was Roberto, I’d now parade in t-shirts with “Target Tokyo” on them.
Huge respect to Adam Peaty, James Guy and the other lads who are trailblazing through world swimming, but it’s given the performance team an excuse to try and ‘cull’ some of our most dedicated competitors – can we expect a much bigger blood bath after Rio, for anyone that doesn’t meet the grade (medals, not finals, darling)?
Interestingly, the next generation don’t seem to be there to fill the potential vacuum. At this stage in the cycle Hannah, Fran, et al were winning international medals, as well as senior nationals.

I expect Target Tokyo is a little like George Osborne’s budget deficit repair job – so long term that it’s more about keeping the Execs and Management ‘in post’ than anything to do with real investment.
If I was a good young swimmer today, I’d plan for years of stop-start funding and an aggressive elite performance drive that, frankly, will drive most of the raw talent out of the sport. Swimming is about the whole community, every county, every club – not just about the egos of those at the top.

Let’s hope for a new, inclusive British Swimming team, after Rio.

Craig Lord
April 26, 2016

Thanks Paul. Yes, I too think that London 2016 would have been a chance for British Swimming to grant national champions and podium placers who have stacked up for Britain on many occasions down the years the chance to sing goodbye on a positive note. I see no convincing argument for leaving a handful of obvious people off the team.
Can only imagine the blows that would have reigned down on Bill Sweetenham’s head had he done the same thing 🙂
As to the Tokyo Target group, time will tell. Hopefully they will be at least as successful as the Smart Trackers were – 2004 to 2016, making impact in senior waters by 2008-09, contenders in 2012 (but didn’t happen) and two of them contenders for the podium in 2016 (and Hannah an age peer of that group but showing with her coach and father that there are various models that can lead to success). Not a bad run. Shame the same targeted exercise was not repeated year after year. The Southport boys, too, benefitted from an exercise that was not repeated, a program that worked brought to a close in short-sighted fashion, in my view. That’s not a criticism of what is being done but is a reflection on what I feel has been a missed opportunity prompted by what feels a touch too much like personal agendas and a reluctance to admit that something someone else put together worked really well and was not something that should have been left to go to seed like an orchard abandoned after the first blossom.
As I said, time will tell if the pathway is the right one. Right now there are mixed messages, with some being shown the door while others are being rewarded for going backwards in the past two years.

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